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Do YOU Know and Follow These Special Bloggers? Why I Love #FollowFriday

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I love Follow Friday because it reminds us weekly to thank the many who take the time to share what others are doing.

We don’t get to thank people as often as they deserve, so today I want to offer special thanks to these fine bloggers for consistently going above and beyond to support what I am working to accomplish:

[NOTE: Additional links and anchor text will be added for all the above. If you have a request for specific links or landing pages leave them in the comments or Skype or IM them.]

I was thinking how I REALLY miss TweepML and went to grab a link to explain what it was and…

GREAT NEWS! TweepML is back!

As soon as I receive a confirmation email resetting my password I’ll add a TweepML link with all of the above – provided it works.

HOW TO THANK YOUR SUPPORTERS:

When someone goes out of their way to uplift what you do, here are some important ways you can thank them:

  1. MOST IMPORTANT: write about and link to them, making sure you use anchor text correctly. Do NOT just link to their name or blog name as they probably already rank for those in the search engines and anyone that already knows their name won’t need to be searching! Link to a phrase that someone who did not already know them would use to find what they are offering. Land that link on the page that has the best information rather than on their home page. If you aren’t sure what to use, ASK THEM!
  2. Write reviews for them at LinkedIn, Technorati, Alexa, StumbleUpon, and on Blog Directories. [Each of those links has how-to info – point at the link to see what it says. You can right click and select open in a new tab so you can go read them after you read this post.]
  3. Share their content on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, on voting sites like BizSugar or Sphinn and on bookmarking sites like Delicious. If their content is consistently relevant to your followers and of high quality, consider automatically sharing their posts as they get published using Twitterfeed or a similar Twitter app. (That has the added benefit of making it more likely YOU will see it and will bring you more followers and get what you shared featured in aggregators like paper.li and the many similar offerings appearing on Twitter.)
  4. Comment in their blogs. Encourage them to use CommentLuv so they can grow a thriving blog community and get to know you and their other commentators better through the posts CommentLuv enables them to share. (I feel KeywordLuv helps me get to know my commentators faster through the keyword phrases and landing pages they choose.)
  5. Google +1 their posts and share them on Google Plus. See these resources:
    1. Kristi Hines on Social Media Examiner: Getting Started with Google Plus, Complete Guide
    2. Jane Sheeba on Find All Answers: Google Plus Tutorial
    3. Kristi on Kikolani: 6 Reasons I Like Google Plus
    4. Jym Tarrant: How Google Plus Will Impact Your Income and How to Make it Work for You.
    5. Kristi on Future Simple: 3 Ways Google Plus Benefits Businesses Now
  6. Give them +K on Klout – Quick Klout Tip: The fast way to start receiving +K is to give it. We can see who gives it in our Klout account so the first people I consider are the ones who have given it to me. I’m sure I’m not the only one!
    1. Official Klout blog post on How to Give +K on Klout
    2. ProfessorJosh ~ Easier to understand tutorial on How to Give +K on Klout
    3. Ileane on What is Klout
    4. BlogHer What is Klout +K and How Does it Work
    5. BusinessesGrow Does Klout +K Affect Your Klout Score?
  7. Congratulate them and brag on them publicly whenever they have:
    1. Been nominated for an award such as the Small Business Influencers awards Liz, Kristi, and I are currently nominated for @SmallBizTrends. [You can vote for us and others you know or admire once every 24 hours.]
    2. Published a book or ebook.
    3. Been interviewed of featured anywhere.  When new recommendations are published (as several have for me lately which you can see at the bottom of the post in the vote for us link above), sharing them right away is more powerful than sharing later. (Sny time is greatly appreciated though!)

While all these things do take time, remember that you are planting the seeds that will bring you and them a larger harvest over time.

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Gail Gardner

Small Business Marketing Strategist at GrowMap
Gail Gardner is the founder of GrowMap.com. She is a Small Business Marketing Strategist who mentors small businesses, bloggers, and freelancers. After 23 years in the field with IBM and 5.5 years managing AdWords accounts, her focus shifted to small business marketing strategy. GrowMap.com is listed by Cision as a Top 100 Site for Marketers and has received three Small Business Influencer Awards from Small Business Trends. Named by D&B a Top 50 SMB Influencer on Twitter, you can follow Gail @GrowMap and on LinkedIn.
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Comments

  2. Kristi Hines and Ana Hoffman are my favorite in that list. They share very light but useful topics in their blogs.

    Reply

  3. Really once your followers understand that you care about them they will definitely pay you back in the same way, I completely support your opinion.

    Reply

  4. This is the first I’ve heard of Klout and +K. I’m quite familiar with a lot of your supporters though. They do excellent work.

    Reply

  5. I know a few and often visit and read their posts. Bloggers like Kristi Hines and Ileane Smith are the ones that I try to keep up with. They always have great content that as a blogger you could actually use to improve your blog.

    I heard of some of the others, but never visited them. Maybe I will take your advice and check them out. Thanks
    Satrap would love you to read ..4 Simple Tips on How to Make Money BloggingMy Profile

    Reply

  6. Great post, thanks for sharing. I agree with Cristian, it makes sense to keep them loyal and interested, how do you make enough time to do it?

    I mean, this is the first comment/reply I write this week and I tweet an average of 5 interesting links to blogs daily mon-fri.

    Re #FF, I love the idea, hope it gets appreciated and valued for what it is, a tool to recommend interesting and smart people and show kindness around twitter.

    Reply

  7. As always, we can’t forget to follow Growmap! Being in the local online advertising and marketing game myself, I really appreciate the helpful sharing of knowledge to educate small businesses on the opportunities out there, and Growmap does an excellent job of this.

    Reply

  9. I think this kind of approach was really beneficiary to both parties and yes it’s nice to show your appreciation towards your co-blogger in this way. I wonder how can I join or how can I start participating, so I need to add them first to my twitter account? then communicate them regularly?
    Vins would love you to read ..Triglycerides Normal RangeMy Profile

    Reply

  10. Taking care of you followers and supporters its a really intelligent idea to keep them loyal and interested, but I also find it time consuming and time is a big factor especially in blogging, I never seem to get enough time to please my supporters.

    Reply

  13. I have seen some familiar names and articles. It is great that you have put them together and thanked them for their work. They surely deserve it all together.

    Reply

  14. I know 6 of the bloggers you’ve listed and I agree they are fine bloggers, always willing to help those who ask for it.

    There’s probably more than I can do to thank others for their patronage of my blogs but when I remember I will tweet, +1, and give them some Klout. One thing though that I pretty well also make time for and that is to visit their blog and leave a comment.
    Sire would love you to read ..Beware Emails That Tell You You’ve Won The LotteryMy Profile

    Reply

    • Hi Sire,

      I probably should have mentioned that the bloggers on this list are there because they are consistently supporting my new blog posts as they are published as I explained in my post about Creating a Consistent Twitter Presence OR I have noticed they frequently share them if they don’t.

      There are so many other bloggers who are probably on one of the many lists I’ve created including my Influential Bloggers on PeerIndex. That list has bloggers who regularly collaborate that are DoFollow and CommentLuv enabled.

      The sites you have created and want to promote are problematic for blogs like mine. If I did not know you and you had not shared a post warning about scams I would delete your links because I avoid linking to sites related to gambling, prescription products, adult content or that have images I consider inappropriate for mixed company.

      The older and wiser I get the less tolerant I am of promoting vices to others. Please do me a favor and only link to blogs that are not in these bad neighborhoods? Google already PageRank slapped this blog back from PR4 to PR3 (and it should be PR5 now as you can see by looking at the SEOMoz tool and comparing it to Kristi’s blog).

      I refuse to stop supporting small businesses by allowing their links in comments, but I do need to publish a comment policy explaining why I do not allow links to certain types of sites including lottery sites.
      growmap would love you to read ..Technorati Interview: Gail Gardner and her Map to Small Business GrowthMy Profile

      Reply

  16. Hey! Thanks for posting a #FF entry that actually stays true to what #FF is supposed to accomplish!! I can’t tell you how many times I see people on Twitter posting a laundry list of @usernames without letting the rest of their followers know WHY all of the aforementioned people are awesome and worth following. Have you seen this The Oatmeal comic about #FF? It’s spot on. Check it out! http://theoatmeal.com/comics/follow_friday

    Reply

    • Hi Paula,

      I don’t find follow friday lists helpful if they don’t indicate WHY we might want to follow certain people. I do sometimes share lists of groups of recommendations by niche so I can always indicate why I’m suggesting them.

      My blogger lists are getting so long that they don’t fit in tweets any more so I do posts and share them instead.
      growmap would love you to read ..Bloggers Wanted to Lead Blog CollaborationsMy Profile

      Reply

  17. I’m glad to see that Google+ is picking up enough steam for it to be as viable as a backlink, I love that network. Besides that, these are excellent methods to thank your fellow bloggers.

    Reply

  18. Pretty nice of you to encourage all this promotion and sharing for your favorite bloggers. I like dragon blogger’s site and try to promote his posts on social media.

    Reply

  20. You’re totally right, we don’t say thank you enough to people who deserve it. I’m guilty of this as well. Thanks for this reminder.

    Reply

  21. I love blogging. This has been part of me for a while now, and for sure I’ll be checking some sites of these special bloggers. Excited to read their posts.

    Reply

  22. I found your site via Google searching for Klout. Not sure why you showed up, must have some nice authority.

    Your post mentions liking people’s posts, using +1, etc. Have you considered creating a private mastermind or association to support each others online efforts? I’m going to retweet your post because it has resource links, my readers are mostly mommy bloggers who are avid marketers.

    Reply

  24. I really like follow friday for that reason as well and Twitter as smart for including it basically from the start, too bad Facebook and Google+ still didn’t catch on to the trend, it would be cool to see how they do it and a new way to share and thank our supporters

    Reply

  25. It’s always great to find new people to follow but I love your tips even more. These tips can be a great way to get the attention of an “A List” blogger, too. I’ve tried them and it works!

    Reply

  26. Thank you for mentioning my vegetable gardening blog on your post.

    You mentioned Google +. Thee is already a plugin that you can add that will add a Google + button to your posts so people can conveniently highlight your post for you. It is called Google +1 and you can get it through the plugin dashboard on WordPress. It seems to work so far.
    Stephanie Suesan Smith would love you to read ..Popcorn Books: Bite Sized Guides to the UniverseMy Profile

    Reply

  27. One of most important factors of success in life is to give without expecting to get. Now if you get something you should always give in return and help your supporters this is something that works in any relationship business, friends etc
    Kostas would love you to read ..Email Marketing And Social Media ExplainedMy Profile

    Reply

  28. I was not using followfriday recently. i must use it atleast from this friday.. 🙂 great article btw.

    Robin

    Reply

  29. I always show my support by hitting the stumble button. You never know, sometimes stumbleupon can bring in a couple hundred views! I think that’s the ultimate “THANK YOU” Hah. What do you think?

    Reply

  31. Thanks for featuring me in your Follow Friday and linking to my Google+ posts – love that network. 🙂

    Reply

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